“You must become the change you wish to see”

This quote by Gandhi is one of my brother’s favorites. I’ve heard it many times and always interpreted it as action based: You need to do good things for good things to happen in this world.

I have, however, been reading all kinds of scientific and spiritual books on Intention. This is the belief that through intentionally altering your mood you can alter your own chemical balances and makeup to not only feel better yourself, but also to change the physical world around you.

I do have to admit that I like the Scientific books better. If you can give me hard facts of the experiments done, I’m more likely to enjoy the theorizing. Giant leaps of faith are something I reserve for individuals, not for use with concepts.

So I read these scientific books that I only vaguely understand and they’re telling me something that I should already know. They’re telling me that if I work hard enough, I can change myself and the world around me. And they’re telling me that working physically toward something isn’t enough, I have to work mentally and emotionally at it, too, or the world’s just as likely to give it amiss and help someone who’s working at it harder.

Another thing that I like that they’re telling me is that there’s value in day-dreaming. The emotional exercise of picturing yourself already getting that prize or being a successful published author really can help you achieve that goal. Now that I think of it, I didn’t actually find the motivation to actually finish the last draft until I started picturing myself on a signing tour.

So now that Gandhi phrase means more and slightly different to me. If I become that change, mentally and physically, then it has no choice but to follow. And heck, it can’t hurt, right?